A couple of Aprils ago, I remarked to an Irish friend how it was nearly May and thus nearly my birthday (what, you’re not still excited about yours?). ‘Ooh’, she said, ‘how lovely. A summer birthday’.
I did a double-take. ‘No’, I corrected, ‘a spring birthday’.
‘But May’s the first month of summer’. My pal was adamant about this; Wikipedia backs her up (though Met Eireann begs to differ).
It's spring, Jim, but not as we know it
It utterly baffled me. Quick; which season’s your birthday in? You know it as instinctively as you know your star sign, right? Years of birthday parties being weather-dependent, or too close to Christmas, or in the middle of the summer holidays, mean that your birthday season’s hardwired. This discovery was just as peculiar as the recent assertion that there’s an extra zodiac sign out there.
I was thinking about this again yesterday, admiring the bank of daffodils I’d planted more in hope than expectation when we moved into our wreck of a house in October. ‘Spring’s sprung’, I thought. And then I wondered. Has it, really? Is it spring over there in Ireland now? And if so, when did it start? Last month, when the snow still threatened? Or is it this month? And why is it different from (as far as I can tell) the rest of Europe?
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
Amanda Brown
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edel Coffey
Anna Carey
Lauren Murphy
Jennie Ridyard
Jude Leavy
Hazel Katherine Larkin
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
Megan McGurk
Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
sarahefranklin
siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
For me it goes like this:
Spring: Feb., March, Apr.
Summer: May, June, July
Autumn: Aug., Sept., Oct.
Winter: Nov. Dec. Jan.
However purely in Irish weather terms that’s always at least a month too early… August is definitely still summer, and February usually feels pretty wintery to me.
My personal breakdown of the Irish seasons of the year is as follows:
Nine months of autumn/winter weather
Two months of spring/borderline winter weather
One month of autumn
Three days of summer*
*This can randomly occur any time in the calendar year from April to October, so grab it while you can.
I’m with Qaoileann on this, I’ve always counted February 1st as the first day of Spring and May 1st as the first day of Summer. I don’t know where or why people have learned different!
Spring started in the middle of Feb here in Ireland =P
Sunshine started happening in the middle of the rainy days. I be very very happy.
Like Qaoileann and Cara, I learnt that Spring is February, March and April; the months of summer are May, June and July, while the autumnal months are August, September and October. The remaining three are winter months. In Irish, September is ‘Mean Fomhair’ – ‘Autumn’s Middle’ and October is ‘Deireadh Fomhair’ – ‘Autumn’s End’. So our native language backs this notion up.
My grandmother, however, always cautioned us to ‘Ne’er cast a clout ’till May is out’ meaning don’t remove a layer of clothing until the end of May. In her mind, May might *technically* be the beginning of summer, but she wouldn’t trust it too much.
Like Sinéad, however, I have spent far too many seasons in Ireland to believe that Irish weather will ever do anything other than exactly what it darned well pleases.
On another note – happy Holi to one and all.
Hazel Katherine
In Irish, September is ‘Mean Fomhair’ – ‘Autumn’s Middle’ and October is ‘Deireadh Fomhair’ – ‘Autumn’s End’. So our native language backs this notion up.
Yeah, I’ve always got the impression that our division of the seasons is a very old one. And it must have been more widespread in the past – it’s also supported by the equinoxes and what we in English call Midsummer is towards the end of June while Midwinter is at the same time in December after all, which doesn’t make sense if Summer starts in June and Winter in December.
I’m with Qaoileann as well. That’s how I always learned the seasons. May is summer, so your friend is right!
My birthday is January, a winter birthday.
It always annoys me when television stations run ads in August with ‘summer viewing’ as the tagline. It’s not summer, August, is autumn.
It is indeed a confusing situation. I’m a May girl too and always told I was born in summer but it does only seem to be here that that’s the case.
It gets even more confusing in Italy where they say summer doesn’t start untill June the 21st or something.
Also think I do remember reading somewhere that they say the seasons have ‘slipped’ in Northern Europe somehow so that way back when February 1st may have indeed been more spring-like, thoguh I don’t know how that would work.
Think I agree with some of the comments above most; most seasons in Ireland can be filed under plain ‘Wet’.
I’m a May girl and I say Spring! However I refuse to acknowledge seasons in Ireland, and just choose to call it Rainy Season and Less Rainy Season.
English, and all the seasons are a month later for me than they are for Irish people. I hadn’t realised that I had such a strong sense of which months were which seasons until I encountered the Irish system and immediately thought, “but that’s so wrong!”
But in England, schools onlys have August off, so we’d have our entire summer holiday in the autumn according to Irish standards!
i think it’s something to do with the nordic countries – i only recently learned from my belgian boyfriend that ireland is one of few countries in which spring starts in february. ireland, iceland and a few other nordic countries.
the discovery came from a conversation about planning for later in the year – going away in “summer” turned out to mean two different things! he thinks summer is 21 june to 21 september! “august is totally summer” according to him.
i don’t know where the difference between ireland and the rest of europe comes from though…
In the US the seasons follow the solstices and equinoxes. So it just turned spring yesterday. I’ve never been able to get my head around the Irish idea that spring starts in February.
I’m with Mary on this one – I’d say that it’s
Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November
Winter: December, January, February
So, it looks like the English are a month out, as I’m English too…!